STS 44

Description

STS-44 was the tenth shuttle Atlantis flight. On board were Asrtonauts Frederick Gregory, Terence Henricks, Story Musgrave, Mario Runco, James Voss, and Thomas Hennen. This was a dedicated mission for the US Department of Defense to gather data for their programs. The Defense Support Program (DSP) satellite was deployed. The Cargo bay and middeck payloadsincluded: Interim Operational Contamination Monitor(IOCM); Terra Scout; Military Man in Space (M88-1); Air Force Maui Optical System (AMOS); Cosmic Radiation Effects and Activation Monitor (CREAM); Shuttle Activation Monitor (SAM); Radiation Monitoring Equipment III (RME III); Visual Function Tester-1 (VFT-1); Ultraviolet Plume Instrument (UVPI). Bioreactor Flow and Particle Trajectory experiment; and Extended Duration Orbiter Medical Project, a series of investigations in support of Extended Duration Orbiter. The mission was shortened when an inertial measurement unit failed on the sixth day of the mission. The mission duration was 166 hours 52 minutes 27 seconds.